South Shore communities to join in national drug take-back day

Christian Schiavone

Friday

Apr 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 27, 2012 at 1:28 AM

On Saturday, drug take-back events organized by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration will be held in 10 South Shore communities from Quincy to Plymouth. The take-backs will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Organized collections of unwanted prescription drugs have become an important means of getting powerfully addictive prescription drugs out of medicine cabinets and away from people who might abuse them, police say.

On Saturday, drug take-back events organized by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration will be held in 10 South Shore communities from Quincy to Plymouth. The take-backs will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Residents can turn in any old or unwanted medications, including over-the-counter drugs. But the main goal is to collect the ones police and experts say are feeding an opiate-addiction wave. Those addictions often begin with abuse of painkillers and wind up with reliance on heroin.

“We at least get those (painkillers) out of circulation and properly destroyed,” Quincy police Lt. Patrick Glynn said. “Otherwise, they can make it out on the street or tempt someone.”

During a DEA-organized take-back event held in Quincy in October, the collection site took in about 400 pounds of unwanted medication, much of it prescription painkillers, Glynn said.

All the medications collected are incinerated.

In Weymouth, town officials have continued holding their own prescription drug collections – combined with regular hazardous waste collections – in addition to the DEA events. Even with the additional collections, the amount of drugs taken in has remained substantial, police Capt. Richard Fuller said.

“It’s been a constant steady flow of people turning in unused medications,” he said. “We’ve had everything from old expired aspirin up to heavy narcotics like OxyContin and everything in between.”

Weymouth held a collection event April 14 and collected more than 900 doses of controlled substances like oxycodone and Vicodin.

Police departments in communities including Weymouth, Braintree, Milton and Quincy have kiosks where residents can turn in unwanted medications, no questions asked.

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Christian Schiavone may be reached at cschiavone@ledger.com.

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